Labour eats into massive Tory lead

NO GUARANTEE OF GETTING LANDSLIDE MAJORITY Prime Minister’s plan for elderly comes back to bite her.

British Prime Minister Theresa May’s huge lead over the opposition Labour Party has narrowed sharply, according to opinion polls published since the Manchester attack, suggesting she might not win the landslide she had hoped for.

Four opinion polls published on Saturday showed that May’s lead had contracted by between two and six percentage points, indicating the June 8 election could be much tighter than initially thought when she called the snap vote.

“Theresa May is certainly the overwhelming favourite to win but, crucially, we are in the territory now where how well she is going to win is uncertain,” said John Curtice, professor of politics at the University of Strathclyde.

“She is no longer guaranteed to get the landslide majority she was originally setting out to get,” said Curtice, a leading psephologist who is president of the British Polling Council.

May called the snap election in a bid to strengthen her hand in negotiations on Britain’s exit from the European Union, to win more time to deal with the impact of the divorce and to strengthen her grip on the Conservative Party.

But if she does not handsomely beat the 12-seat majority her predecessor David Cameron won in 2015, her electoral gamble will have failed and her authority could be undermined just as she enters formal Brexit negotiations.

Sterling on Friday suffered its steepest fall since January after a YouGov opinion poll showed the lead of May’s Conservatives over Labour was down to five percentage points.

When May stunned politicians and financial markets on April 18 with her call for a snap election, opinion polls suggested she could emulate Margaret Thatcher’s 1983 majority of 144 seats or even threaten Tony Blair’s 1997 Labour majority of 179 seats.

But polls had shown May’s rating slipping over the past month and they fell sharply after she set out plans on May 18 to make some elderly people pay a greater share of their care costs, a proposal dubbed the “dementia tax” by opponents.

As her lead shrank, May was forced to backtrack on the policy at an appearance before the media on Monday.

Campaigning was suspended for several days after the Manchester attack but resumed on Friday.

New polls showed little evidence that May, who as the former home secretary oversaw the police and domestic intelligence agency, had gained support.

“The campaign has changed,” Johnny Heald, managing director of ORB International, said. “Expect to see a forensic focus on Brexit and security over the next two weeks.” –